How is rape related to caste dominance ?

- Anchita Thiagarajan

Chunmithra CV

In a village 200 km away from Delhi, a 19-year-old girl was raped and injured badly, she was admitted in the village hospital. On 28 September she was taken to the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi, on the following day she died. This stirred the media a while.  A lot of other cases such as Badhoi, Blamapur, and jiyanpur cases also came front. People demanded capital punishment of the rapists, there were protests, debates held on the incompetence of the government officials, and then all went silent. And yes, the police and the law enforcement system is ineffective; I do not contradict that, but we also have to acknowledge the same cycle that is being continued whenever any such case is brought forward. Now I am not here telling that this should not be done, she is a warrior and we have to respect her soul in any way possible and make sure the convicted gets punished. 

But among all the anger, and rage we forget to notice how the government's main goal here is to not stop such cases from happening, rather they are constantly trying to suppress such cases so that their image for the next election remains intact. In an interview Darapuri, the civil liberties activist and a former police officer said “Rape and atrocities against Dalits become political issues in elections so all governments try to keep these figures low," he said. "Village council elections and assembly elections are all due in the state in the next 18 months and the government does not want to give a handle to the opposition." Aside from this, state authorities had the gall to claim to the Supreme Court that there was an "international plot" to cause caste and religious riots in Uttar Pradesh and topple Mr Adityanath's government.

Now I am not going to go into the details of what this case is, if you go to google, you will have tons of articles talking about the incompetence of the police forces and the details of this case and the others too. But as opposed to the popular view, the important thing to know is why such rapes happen? Is it the incompetence of the government? Or is it something else?

The house of the victim and the house of the rapist was divided by a very thin line, but their difference was thickened by years of caste consciousness predicated on maintaining purity of lineage and sexual purity of women. The more caste is entrenched in society the more men would want to keep women oppressed to maintain their caste privileges. The truth about rape is that often these are not a single event, rather this is a strategic consequence of the dominance of race, caste or religion. 

Research by Joshua A Jones showed that communal riots are often extremely planned and strategic. Sexual violence has been used as a strategic weapon of war for as long as the historians know. From Mahabharatha to Hathras, sexual violence towards women has been used as a tool in a bigger picture.  Moreover, the sheer “prevalence of its use precludes the validity of the “bad apple” argument, wherein a deviant minority becomes the scapegoat which suffers for the sins of an apathetic organization” (Whitmer, 2006).

In order to study the social impact of sexual violence, the main motive and intent behind the groups that use sexual violence as a tool of war and dominance must be understood. Being a psychological weapon, rape warfare has been used to diminish the identity of a particular ethnic group and to maintain dominance over them. One Hutu leader, Mayor Silvester Cacumbibi, is rumoured to have told one of his victims “We won’t waste bullets on you; we will rape you and that will be worse for you” (Zimbardo, 2007, p. 13).

Not only during wartime, but rape is also extremely prevalent even during peacetime, and yet is very much under-reported. The reason for this? 

1. Victim’s lack of understanding of what constitutes as sexual violence. And hence ineffective law enforcement often breeds trepidation among the people.

2. Now, even if the victim is aware of her/his rights, they often perceive that the law enforcement and the judicial system will continue to victimise the survivor. (Clay-Warner & McMahon-Howard, 2009) and it is not false. 

3. Additionally, victims often feel embarrassed and wish to keep the incidents private as they question their own culpability (Clay-Warner & McMahon-Howard, 2009; S. Holmes & R. Holmes, 2009, pp. 218-219). As the Haryanvi love to use the phrase “एक हाथ से तालि नहीं बजा सकते” which literally translates to “you cannot clap with one hand”.

The only way to overcome this unending cycle of anger, rage, capital punishment, and lying is by making the survivor understand that they have gone through a crime which is punishable according to the law. More importantly, people must have access to the justice system (Allen,2007). Ergo, “an effective counter-strategy must incorporate the application of human rights and humanitarian advocacy.”

More importantly, they must have access to justice (Allen, 2007). Ergo, an effective counter-strategy must incorporate the application of human rights law and humanitarian advocacy.

Reference 

• https://twitter.com/TanushreePande/status/1311035509246894080

• https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hathras-case-cops-contradict-victim-s-statement/story-ZZLwQAdckGVk2jZAWcAmyL.html

• https://twitter.com/OfficialSource2/status/1311524993918889984

• https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/09/29/help-us-get-justice-please-dalit-girl-assaulted-in-ups-hathras-succumbs

• http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/732/addressing-the-use-of-sexual-violence-as-a-strategic-weapon-of-war

• https://scroll.in/article/873072/supreme-court-says-sc-st-atrocities-act-is-misused-so-what-explains-the-low-conviction-rates

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54444939